CAIRO: The decision by Egypt’s former prime minister not to run in presidential elections deprives the race of its most serious challenger to Abdel Fattah El-Sisi.
Egypt will hold a presidential vote at the end of March, the election commission said on Monday.
While he has not yet announced his candidacy, El-Sisi is widely expected to stand and win the third presidential election in Egypt since the uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak in 2011.
Ahmed Shafiq said on Sunday he would not be running — reversing a pledge that he would take part.
The ex-air force commander said he did not consider himself “the best person” to fill the position.
“Given that he came in second place in Egypt’s 2012 presidential race, I believe Shafiq was going to be a strong contender,” Amr Hashem, political analyst at the Ahram Center for Strategic Studies, said.
“He was a heavyweight candidate for many factors, and his presence could have made the election season a hot one. But due to all the pressure on him lately, his withdrawal was somehow expected.”
“With his withdrawal, it is likely that no other candidate would be able to potentially make a strong standing in competition with El-Sisi,” Justin Dargin, an expert on the Middle East from Oxford University, said.
After narrowly losing a presidential election to Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohamed Mursi in 2012, Shafiq fled to the UAE where he has lived ever since and disappeared from Egypt’s political scene.
During that time, Shafiq was tried in absentia on corruption charges, but was eventually acquitted.
He returned to the limelight last month when he announced his intention to run in the elections and return soon to Egypt to start his campaign.
A few hours later, Al Jazeera aired a video in which Shafiq said he was not allowed to leave the UAE and criticized the UAE for meddling in Egypt’s affairs.
Despite claims by Shafiq’s lawyer and his party that the video was leaked to the Qatari-owned TV network, Shafiq was reportedly given 48 hours to leave the UAE.
His arrival in Egypt was surrounded by controversy and Shafiq took part in a phone interview with a popular TV show, during which he said he was OK.
His appearance on Al Jazeera placed him in hot water, with some accusing him of collaborating with the Muslim Brotherhood and Qatar, considered enemies of the Egyptian state.
The 76-year-old former aviation minister was the last prime minister to hold office under Mubarak.
Announcing on Twitter his decision to withdraw, he said that his time back in Egypt had led him to reconsider the decision.
“My absence of more than five years perhaps distanced me from being able to very closely follow what is going on in our nation in terms of developments and achievements despite the difficulty of the conditions,” he said.
“I have seen that I will not be the ideal person to lead the state’s affairs during the coming period. Thus, I have decided not to run in the upcoming 2018 presidential elections.”
“It was expected that he would reconsider his intention to run. There were several factors that played a role,” Dargin said.
“And, even if Shafiq did run, it appears that with the Egyptian body politic, he is not nearly as popular as El-Sisi, seeing that his years away from Egypt left him out of touch with the enormous changes that occurred since the revolution.
“It would be expected that even if Shafiq did run, El-Sisi would still dominate the polls because of his popularity and the respect garnered since he ascended to the presidency.”
Shafiq’s election withdrawal deprives El-Sisi of only serious rival
Shafiq’s election withdrawal deprives El-Sisi of only serious rival
UN will declare that both Israel and Hamas are violating children’s rights in armed conflict
- The inclusion of Israel this month will likely just put more of a global spotlight on the country’s conduct of the war in Gaza
- Adding Israel to the “list of shame’ is an important step in the right direction: Palestinian UN ambassador
UNITED NATIONS: The UN secretary-general will tell the Security Council next week that both Israel and Hamas are violating children’s rights and leaving them exposed to danger in their war to eliminate each other.
The secretary-general annually makes a global list of states and militias that are menacing children and threatening them. Parties on the list have ranged from the Kachin Independence Army in Myanmar to — last year — Russia during its war with Ukraine.
Now Israel is set to join them.
António Guterres sends the list to the Security Council and the council can then decide whether to take action. The United States is one of five veto-wielding permanent council members and has been reluctant to act against Israel, its longtime ally.
Another permanent member is Russia and when the United Nations put Russian forces on its blacklist last year for killing boys and girls and attacking schools and hospitals in Ukraine, the council took no action.
The inclusion of Israel this month will likely just put more of a global spotlight on the country’s conduct of the war in Gaza and increase already high tensions in its relationship with the global body.
The preface of last year’s UN report says it lists parties engaged in “the killing and maiming of children, rape and other forms of sexual violence perpetrated against children, attacks on schools, hospitals and protected persons.”
The head of Guterres’ office called Israel’s UN ambassador, Gilad Erdan, on Friday to inform him that Israel would be in the report when it is sent to the council next week, UN spokesman Stéphane Dujarric told reporters on Friday.
The militant Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad groups also will be listed.
Israel reacted with outrage, sending news organizations a video of Erdan berating the head of Guterres’ office — who was supposedly on the other end of a phone call — and posting it on X.
“Hamas will continue even more to use schools and hospitals because this shameful decision of the secretary-general will only give Hamas hope to survive and extend the war and extend the suffering,” Erdan wrote in a statement. “Shame on him!”
The Palestinian UN ambassador said that adding Israel to the “‘list of shame,’ will not bring back tens of thousands of our children who were killed by Israel over decades.”
“But it is an important step in the right direction,” Riyad Mansour wrote in a statement.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said “the UN put itself on the black list of history today” as the move heightened the long-running feud between Israel and the UN and even the routine mechanics of Israel’s dealings with the world body are now fraught with tensions.
The normally equanimous secretary-general’s spokesman broke from the good-natured tone of his noon briefing when asked to discuss the latest development.
“The call was a courtesy afforded to countries that are newly listed on the annex of the report,” Dujarric said. “The partial release of that recording on Twitter is shocking and unacceptable and frankly, something I’ve never seen in my 24 years serving this organization.”
Condemnation of the secretary-general’s decision appeared to bring together Israel’s increasingly fractious leadership — from the right-wing Netanyahu and Erdan to the popular centrist member of the War Cabinet, Benny Gantz.
Gantz cited Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, as saying “it matter not what say the goyim (non-Jews), what is important is what do the Jews.”
For month Israel has faced heavy international criticism over civilian casualties in Gaza and questions about whether it has done enough to prevent them in the eight-month-old war. Two recent airstrikes in Gaza killed dozens of civilians.
UN agencies warned Wednesday that over 1 million Palestinians in Gaza could experience the highest level of starvation by the middle of next month if hostilities continue.
The World Food Program and the Food and Agriculture Organization said in a joint report that hunger is worsening because of heavy restrictions on humanitarian access and the collapse of the local food system in the eight-month Israel-Hamas war.
The proportion of Palestinian women and children being killed in the Israel-Hamas war appears to have declined sharply, an Associated Press analysis of Gaza Health Ministry data has found, a trend that both coincides with Israel’s changing battlefield tactics and contradicts the ministry’s own public statements.
The trend is significant because the death rate for women and children is the best available proxy for civilian casualties in one of the 21st century’s most destructive conflicts. In October, when the war began, it was above 60 percent. For the month of April, it was below 40 percent.
Yet the shift went unnoticed for months by the UN and much of the media, and the Hamas-linked Health Ministry has made no effort to set the record straight.
US demands accountability over ‘horrific’ Sudan village attack
- RSF, which has been at war with the regular army since April 2023, attacked central village of Wad Al-Noura
WASHINGTON DC: The United States on Friday condemned Sudanese paramilitary forces’ “horrific” attack that killed more than 100 people in a village as it urged accountability and a resumption of ceasefire talks.
“The United States condemns the horrific attacks by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on unarmed civilians,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said.
“Attacks on civilians throughout Sudan must stop now. There can be no military victory in this war,” he said in a statement.
The RSF, which has been at war with the regular army since April 2023, on Wednesday attacked the central village of Wad Al-Noura in Al-Jazira state with heavy artillery, according to democracy activists.
The activists shared footage of what it said was a mass grave and gave a death toll of at least 104.
The United States and Saudi Arabia brought together the warring forces for talks in the Saudi city of Jeddah shortly after the outbreak of the violence, producing a temporary humanitarian ceasefire agreement that quickly collapsed.
US diplomats have been pushing for months for a return to talks but have made little headway.
“Both the RSF and the Sudanese Armed Forces must ensure the protection of civilians and hold accountable anyone within their ranks who is responsible for war crimes or violations of the Jeddah Declaration,” Miller said.
Lebanon PM welcomes US, France, UK, German stance on stability
- Israeli military operation ‘inevitable’ if diplomatic efforts fail, Gantz warns
- The leaders of France, the US, UK, and Germany on Thursday issued a joint statement calling for a de-escalation
BEIRUT: Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister has welcomed a call by the leaders of four Western powers to “preserve stability” in the country amid growing fears of a major Israeli military assault.
Najib Mikati said on Friday: “We highly value this stance that supports Lebanon and calls for united efforts to stop the escalation.”
The leaders of France, the US, UK, and Germany on Thursday issued a joint statement calling for a de-escalation in tensions along the border between Lebanon and Israel in line with UN peacekeeping resolutions.
The statement was issued as the leaders took part in commemorative events marking the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy during the Second World War.
Mikati added: “Our priority is to communicate with Lebanon’s friends worldwide and in decision-making countries to stop the escalation and the Israeli hostilities in southern Lebanon.”
Confrontations between the Israeli army and Hezbollah entered their ninth month this week.
Hostilities have intensified in recent days, with the use of heavy rockets and threats by Israel to launch a full-scale military assault amid the diplomatic deadlock.
Mikati said that diplomatic efforts in the past had protected Lebanon from Israeli attempts to escalate the conflict.
The statement issued by the four Western leaders emphasized the need to work on avoiding regional escalation, he added.
Despite the statement, Israeli war Cabinet member Benny Gantz resumed his threats against Lebanon.
He warned on Friday that an Israeli military operation in Lebanon was inevitable if diplomatic efforts failed.
Israel would not hesitate to use force if the threats faced by northern villages continued, he said.
Hezbollah on Thursday targeted Israeli warplanes with air defense missiles for the first time, a move widely seen as a dangerous security development.
In a statement, Hezbollah said that “these missiles were launched toward planes that violated our airspace and breached the sound barrier in an attempt to scare children.”
Hezbollah claimed that the missiles forced the planes to abandon their missions.
Quoting senior US and Israeli officials, the Israeli Walla news website said that US President Joe Biden’s administration had warned Israel against starting a limited war with Lebanon, citing potential Iranian intervention.
Washington told Israel that a “limited war” in Lebanon or a “small regional war” is not a realistic option because of the risk that it will spin out of control, the website added.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for “a halt to the mutual attacks between Israel and Hezbollah along the border,” while expressing concern over the risk of a “wider conflict with devastating consequences to the region.”
On a related note, Mohammed Ayyad, the Hezbollah member accused of killing an Irish peacekeeper, failed to appear before the military tribunal on Friday.
Ayyad and others are alleged to have fired on a UNIFIL vehicle in Aaqbiye that was heading to Beirut on Dec. 15, 2022, killing the driver and wounding some passengers.
He was released on bail six months after being detained.
Medical reports were submitted to the court stating that Ayyad has a “terminal illness.”
The trial was postponed until February next year.
Ayyad, along with four others who allegedly took part in the incident, are being tried in absentia.
Blinken to visit Mideast next week to push ceasefire plan
- Blinken will visit Israel and key US Arab partners Egypt, Jordan and Qatar
- Blinken “will emphasize the importance of Hamas accepting the proposal on the table,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said
WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will visit the Middle East next week to push a plan for an Israel-Hamas ceasefire, the State Department announced Friday.
Blinken, who will be paying his eighth visit to the region since the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel, will visit Israel and key US Arab partners Egypt, Jordan and Qatar from Monday through Wednesday, the State Department said.
The United States has been pushing for Hamas to accept a plan laid out a week ago by President Joe Biden that would halt fighting for at least six months and free hostages seized by militants on October 7.
Blinken “will emphasize the importance of Hamas accepting the proposal on the table, which is nearly identical to one Hamas endorsed last month,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement.
The top US diplomat “will discuss how the ceasefire proposal would benefit both Israelis and Palestinians. He will underscore that it would alleviate suffering in Gaza, enable a massive surge in humanitarian assistance and allow Palestinians to return to their neighborhoods,” he said.
Blinken will head to the region from France, where he has accompanied Biden for commemorations of the 80th anniversary of the D-Day Allied landings in Normandy. He will then return Wednesday to join the president at the summit of the Group of Seven major industrial democracies in Italy.
Israel says struck Hamas at UN school in Gaza, 3 reported dead
- Army said strike targeted “terrorists” operating from container on school premises operated by UNRWA
- The media office said an Israeli aircraft had targeted the school, killing three and wounding seven
JERUSALEM: Israel’s military said its forces struck Friday a UN-run school near Gaza City, the second such facility hit within two days, with the Hamas-run government media office reporting three fatalities.
The army said the strike targeted Hamas “terrorists” who were operating from a container on the premises of a school operated by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, in northern Gaza’s Al-Shati refugee camp.
The media office said an Israeli aircraft had targeted the school, killing three and wounding seven.
On Thursday an Israeli strike hit another UNRWA school, in central Gaza, where a hospital said 37 people had been killed.
UNRWA has been key to aid operations in the besieged Gaza Strip during the eight-month war between Israel and Hamas, and the agency’s facilities throughout the territory have been turned into shelters for displaced civilians.
The Israeli army has repeatedly accused Hamas and other Gaza militants of hiding in schools and hospitals, a charge denied by the group.
Hamas in a statement urged an international investigation “into these crimes” and demanded “accountability and punishment” for Israeli leaders.
Many UNRWA buildings have enough space to host many people, and Gazans have taken refuge there thinking UN facilities were relatively safe from bombardment.
But UNRWA spokeswoman Juliette Touma told AFP on Friday that “over 180 UNRWA facilities, among them many shelters for displaced people, have been hit since the war began.”
“As a result, more than 440 people have been killed while sheltering under the UN flag,” she said.
UNRWA shares the coordinates of all its buildings in Gaza with all parties to the conflict, including the Israeli army, Touma added.
The war broke out after Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,194 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 36,731 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.
